Thursday, April 23rd, 2009...9:56 pm
The Postseason Notebook: Spurs-Mavs, Game 3
The formula that produced tonight’s blowout loss against the Mavericks seems simple enough. The Mavericks came out with a level of defensive intensity they had yet to show this series. The Spurs were out of sync offensively from the outset and continued to miss open looks for a full 4 quarters. The Mavs had a sizeable lead in the mid third and Popovich threw in the towel. In almost every Spurs playoff series I have ever watched, at least one game closely replicates the narrative arc we witnessed this evening.
But even if each game makes sense in and of itself, this series has yet to develop a rhythm. The power dynamics of the individual match-ups fluctuate wildly from game to game. Players who seem unstoppable one night are decidedly mortal the next. Although the details are quite different, the tone of this series reminds me of last season’s schizophrenic Western Conference Semifinals between the Spurs and the Hornets: The only game that was close in the closing minutes was Game Seven. I would not at all be surprised if this series ended in a similar manner.
It may seem odd to say this but I would much rather have lost this game by 21 then by single digits. My pride may need a few stitches but my confidence is as spry as ever. I remain optimistic because when you root for a team that possesses the mental toughness of San Antonio, a blowout loss is as much an opportunity as an embarrassment. When Game Four arrives, our men will be salty. They will be ready to eat their own guts and ask for seconds.
Oppositely, it will be difficult for the Mavericks to muster a repeat performance on the defensive end of the floor. Dallas has never been known for their poise or defensive consistency. Their comfortable margin of victory may leave them beamish for the time being but the dangers of contentment lurk just around the corner.
The psychological techtonics of the series aside, the other positive aspect of tonight’s loss was the limited minutes both Duncan and Parker saw. In our Game One loss, Parker played 41 minutes while Duncan played 37. Tonight Parker played 21 while Duncan played 16. Last season I was critical of how early Popovich decided to cede the victory but this evening it made sense. I would much rather Parker and Duncan rest up for next game than drain themselves in the hopes of making an unlikely comeback.
I don’t have much else to say about tonight’s game. It’s hard to give constructive criticism after a loss like that. What should I say? Don’t go 2 for 17 from 3-point range? Sure, that’s a start. I’d love to comment on George Hill’s 24 minutes of play but honestly, by the middle of the third quarter, the game was mostly a blur of bodies passing emptily before my eyes. Any analytical edge I try to maintain during games had been lost somewhere near the bottom of my pint glass.
Check back throughout tomorrow and Saturday for further thoughts on tonight’s loss and what the Spurs must do to even the series on Saturday. And thanks for your continued support (of both Tim and I and the Spurs).
8 Comments
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Can’t wait for game 4. Go Spurs Go!
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Good point: “..it will be difficult for the Mavericks to muster a repeat performance on the defensive end of the floor.” So true. You can add difficult to repeat the hot shooting by everyone. Mirror that with the likelihood that we shoot north of 11% from 3 and 32% from the field and I see a much different result Saturday.
But I still can’t shake the fact that we no longer have a road assassin w/out Manu and Horry. With Manu playing hurt last playoffs, four of our first five road games were double digit losses. Only the 41pt night by Tony resulted in a win. I also don’t like that we’ve had two chances to lead this series and put pressure on a fragile team only to come up lame in both. Missed layups and defensive assignments did us in during game 1; missing everything got us tonight. Credit Dallas from the 2nd quarter on but in the first, those misses had to do with bad luck more than Mavs pursuit.
Where is the desire to punk a team like Dallas, push them down and keep them there, whether we win in 5 games or 6? These are the Mavs; truth be told, nothing special. The only message we’ve delivered is that we can play our best on short rest and our worst while fully rested. It used to be that consistency was our personality. What is it now?
April 24th, 2009 at 8:09 am
I completely agree with your point about this team lacking that killer instinct, or more importantly, the ability to put a team away. I think it says a lot about the state of the team, in the biggest game of the year, that we were buried within minutes. There was no excuse other than being out played by Dallas. And that can’t or shouldn’t happen in such a critical game.
I’m by no means jumping off the bandwagon or anything like that, but I think we’ve become a little too accepting of the fact that the team takes days off and can’t seem to flip the “playoff switch” like they used to. I know the window is still open with Duncan (and potentially Parker), but now, the team is filled with a lot more questions than answers.
I hope I don’t lose my Spurs card for saying this, but a part of me almost hopes we lose to the Mavericks in the first round. I think it’s time to make some big changes and that may be the only way for them to happen. Our series against NO last year was very telling, but our ability to squeak by gave us a false sense that we would be fine, once Manu was healthy. So they brought back older players and didn’t really revamp the roster. Hill and Mason were great additions, but did any of us really think a Championship was within our grasp when Bowen, Finley, Bonner, Thomas, and Oberto were going to be playing such huge roles?
I love the Spurs and I want them to win. They have been the most consistent and dominant franchise in all of sports the past decade. They are the team everyone is trying to emulate. They have raised the bar to the highest level. So why am I complaining? Because we can’t begin to be complacent. We can’t accept not changing. And we can’t accept loses like last night.
April 24th, 2009 at 8:24 am
Man, I had such an awful night last night. I was sitting next to a few sorority girls from Dallas who were clearly fair weather fans, and they would clap and say things like, “Oh yeah! Good job, pass the ball to our guy!” Ugh. UGH. So I drank.
I have a question about Bonner – again. It’s obvious that he’s trying to body up Dirk when Dirk has the ball, but he takes like a 45 degree angle on him every time. Now, if I remember correctly, the most basic concept of defense, the one that I learned before anything else, is “Stay between your man and the basket.” Granted, it gets more complicated when you have professional, notably Pop’s, defensive schemes. So is Bonner expecting help defense on the drive? Even so, you have to obstruct the path to the basket at least a little bit when he drives in order to give the help defense a fighting chance to get there. What’s the deal here?
Another thing I noticed, and that I hope Pop is not happy about, it our closeouts on open perimeter players. In the days of yore, our defense closed out effectively on EVERY pass, sprinting to get there and breaking down in front of the man in case he decided to drive. On several occasions this series, the Mavs have kicked it out to the perimeter, and if we think we don’t have a chance of getting there, we all stand around and watch the open 3-pointer go up. That’s not Spurs basketball.
April 24th, 2009 at 8:31 am
bouncing back after blowouts in last years matchup with noh was the first thing that came to mind for me as well…
spurs need to get over game 3. focus on game 4. come out with the intensity that they had in game 2 and obviously, knockin down shots help.
go spurs go!
April 24th, 2009 at 11:57 am
nick, there must be a good reason for those weird angles. I saw Houston playing Dirk like that too on the last game of the season.
April 24th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
I agree with Greg. The signs were there in 2006 itself. Spurs lost to Dallas because they gave up offensive rebounds at the end of the game. Except for Timmy, Spurs don’t have a reliable rebounder for last few years. In 2007, they got lucky. The only two teams (Dallas and Suns) who were contending for championship self-imploded and Spurs won the championship. In 2008, Manu’s ankle is a convenient excuse. May be if Spurs had somebody to defend David West, series wouldn’t have gone to 7 games and may be Manu’s injury may not have worsened. The point is signs were always there but they are overlooked because Spur are either still winning or losing narrowly.
After losing the series to Dallas in 2006, Pop asked “How athletic Spurs need to get to not lose by 1 point?”. Well, not a whole lot, but difference is instead of squeaking by other teams, you could put them away easily gaining precious rest for aging players. This off-season should be pretty interesting and lets see what the management does this time.
April 27th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
[...] in Game Four. Also I felt the stage was set for the Mavericks to feel cocky and come out flat. I said as much late that [...]
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